This morning I went out to buy our weekly newspaper (which has the best TV guide any newspaper can offer) and then went on my daily walks. Such walks being vitally necessary to replace the regular swim and reduced cycling schedules, especially those weekly eight-mile round trips to church and back. And to replace my weekly session at Starbucks with its lovely and creamy, calorie-rich cappuccino coffee. Therefore, whether my health/weight would benefit - gaining the first and losing the second - only time would tell during this lockdown.
It was a beautiful morning. The sunshine bringing out the best in colours, such as the glossy green leaves of the Rhododendron lining either one or both sides of the footpath, various trees in the full bloom of white flowers while others have just budded into leaf, the green lawns matted with a carpet of daisies, and the warmth of the air allowing me to go out in Summer attire, that is, in shorts and a coloured tank-top or vest.
Easter. Or as someone calls it, Resurrection Day. It's perhaps the favourite time of the year, with Spring Equinox not far behind and the days continue to lengthen and the weather bathed in the warm sunshine. And while this coronavirus lockdown continues with no apparent end in sight, I was actually wondering whether God is teasing us. That is to say, giving health and beauty to the rest of his creation whilst our own health remains under threat.
Or could it be, as the Bible indicates, that through the beauty of his creation, God is trying to speak to us, encouraging us to turn to him, having already reconciled himself to us through the Death, Burial and Resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, to which this public holiday is all about? And so, for the first time since 1973, there is no church I can go to, nowhere to meet together to acknowledge and worship with fellow believers. True enough, throughout the years, there were some when I made off to the coast, particularly in the Bournemouth or Swanage area of East Dorset after finding a suitable hotel on a typical off-the-street walk-in method. And I was never disappointed.
Indeed, over the years I have questioned whether our Lord Jesus was crucified on a Friday. The Roman Catholic Church has always taught so, and the vast majority of Protestant churches have always done so, too. But if there is any source that would throw the spanner into the works, it had to be the Bible itself. And to add to the apparent frustration, there is only one verse in the entire New Testament, Matthew 12:40, which are words spoken by Jesus himself, and it's not repeated in any other of the four Gospels. He was referring to the prophet Jonah in the Old Testament, who spent three days and three nights inside the belly of an unspecified marine creature after being thrown overboard from a ship whilst running away from God's specific command to visit the city of Ninevah, Jonah 1:17.
Here, Jesus makes a comparison. Just as Jonah was hidden from all life for three days and three nights, so Jesus himself will be "in the bowels of the earth" for the same duration. Of course, I want to go along with all other Christians and remember his crucifixion on Good Friday, as I grew up to believe. And every year, I always made an effort to attend a service on Good Friday But even from boyhood, with the assumption that the Saturday Sabbath is the very next day after his crucifixion, somehow I had an instinctive feeling that not all added up nicely. How I wished it did. Since a Friday crucifixion followed by a Sunday Resurrection does not add up to three days and three nights. Instead, his burial only adds up to two nights - Friday night and Saturday night.
The greater majority of Christians accept this without question. If all the churches taught this for nearly two millennia, then who am I to question it? Perhaps Matthew 12:40 is a copying error? If so, then how can I trust the rest of the Bible for being reliable? Indeed, an error of this kind, a quotation from Jesus, would mean that Jonah himself (or his biographer) erred when he wrote three days and three nights hid undersea. If Jonah had gotten it wrong, so did Jesus. Such doesn't lend much credit for inspiration!
There is always the idea that the High Day of John 19:31 was a reference to a special Sabbath, itself distinct from the normal Saturday Sabbath as being the first day of Unleavened Bread, a Jewish holiday lasting a full week gotten from Exodus 12:1-30. If this special Sabbath fell on a Friday, this would have meant two Sabbaths, Friday and Saturday, one after the other. If that was the case, that would mean that Jesus was Crucified on a Thursday, which was the Day of Preparation, when leaven was removed from every Jewish household across Israel and beyond.
Jesus died at the same moment when all the Passover lambs were slain, to be roasted and then eaten later that night, which was by then the first day of Unleavened Bread, a special Sabbath or High Day which was a Friday. Maybe that was why the apostle Paul called his Lord Jesus Christ "the Passover Lamb" of 1 Corinthians 5:7.
This seems to be a worthwhile study, and from it, I personally accept that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday, to die shortly before nightfall on that day. But this is something I need to keep for myself - or just share on this blog. I know that such an idea will be resisted by just about every Christian believer who either know me personally or who reads this blog. In the face of universal church authority, I would be perceived as just an oddity, a quack, one of those nerdy types who is off his rocker and therefore fully deserve by them to be ignored and not taken any notice of.
Maybe that is not as bad as it first looks. To God only am I accountable. If advocating a Thursday crucifixion will earn a stern rebuke from Heaven...
So be it. At least I can explain why I believe what I believe. But my biggest concern is that thereafter, no one will take my blogs seriously enough to bother reading them. I would be categorised as quackery, probably on the same level as believing that a small phial of water can be classed as holistic medicine, even if there is only one molecule of elixir in the entire phial, to give healing benefits.
Holistic medicine or not, for me, the historicity of the Crucifixion, and the timing of his death, his duration of burial and his Resurrection on that early Sunday morning even before daybreak is very central to my faith. Even Paul knew this by writing that if Christ had not risen, then my faith is in vain, without a purpose - 1 Corinthians 15:14. With our health under threat with a coronavirus infection with my beloved on special high risk, then believing in the historicity of Christ's final moments is absolutely central, allowing everything else to fall into proper perspective. And that includes the possibility that he was crucified on a Thursday, or the fifth day of the week.
It comes in as very supportive and edifying when in such a time when due to the lockdown, all dentists in our area have shut down and shortly after, Alex develops a severe toothache with pain spreading upwards towards her cranium. Earlier in the week, her pain was so severe that she begged me to phone 111. They believed that her condition was severe enough to warrant an ambulance. After the paramedics had found out that she overdosed (slightly) on both Paracetamol and Oramorph, they insisted on a trip to A&E where she will be further assessed. Due to the pandemic, I had to remain at home, for the first time ever. About six hours later she arrived home by taxi after being discharged without treatment, endorsing our opinion that the trip was a waste of time and effort.
Fortunately, her dentist has gotten through to us from his private mobile and prescribed antibiotics. As she gets closer to halfway through her course, the pain still comes and goes, but (with the help of painkillers) it's now less intense. The whole point of this episode is the timing of this entire scenario. It's as if she's a victim of some spiritual trickery or mockery, to make our lives as miserable and stressfully hard as can be. But her own faith in God is to be commended, much having been taught by me over the last twenty years of marriage and her more recent commitment to read the Bible.
Daily reports on nearly a thousand deaths with Coronavirus in intensive care each day, here in the UK, I find so distressing to the spirit. With the world looking so dark and grim, the Easter holidays should be a good time, a reminder that the light of Christ is shining, and God commands that all people everywhere should come to repentance and receive the eternal life which is on offer to all those who believe. If only Easter would shout all the louder! If only people would see the light of Christ with his arms open to receive them, and run to him, even from the fears and anxieties this pandemic is bringing. Yet what do I find?
A discussion about Brexit on Facebook! And that with the typical Brexiteer's insensitive response: To hell with Brussels, we are leaving at the end of the year, end of! This was amid a discussion whether, due to talks delayed by the pandemic, the intermittent period should be extended into next year, or should it still end on schedule without an agreement between London and Brussels? The Brexiteer has expressed his opinion that he couldn't care less about the talks. To him, nationalism is all or nothing. To be honest, I was shocked to read this during these sorrowful times.
Cry! Cry! Cry unto my soul, cry! Somehow, in this present distress, I don't think this is the right time to discuss such an issue. Why not? Well, let's see. Up to a thousand patients confined in intensive care have lost their lives with coronavirus each day here in the UK alone. That alone is very distressing. I think of the many families who have lost their loved one. I try to put myself into their place. I imagine my beloved wife lying in intensive care, unconscious, with a ventilator pipe connecting a machine to the inside of her trachea. She lies there alone, longing for my company had she remained conscious, but the hospital still forbids me to be by her side. Then her liver gives in. Immediately the nurse notices that her cardiac monitor is displaying a straight line and emitting a constant hum. The doctor arrives to give confirmation. Presently, I receive a phone call from the hospital, a very apologetic message to inform me that I'm now a widower.
This could be real. The NHS has informed her that she is on the high-risk category due to having cancer. At present, she remains at home under a shielding programme. But one mistake from me, who is allowed to go out for essentials, could still pass the virus to her.
But thanks to Easter, she would be one of the fortunate ones. At her passing, she would be in the arms of her Lord in Heaven. As she enters glory, all her pains would be over. Over for eternity, along with all the other problems the stresses of life had thrown at her. She would enjoy her final victory. It would soften the terrible blow I would have suffered at the news and the easing of the dread by Christ's presence from a very lonely existence, especially if our church services are still grounded by the pandemic.
Thank you, Lord God, for sending your dear Son as a once-and-for-all-time sacrifice to atone for our sins. And after three days and three nights confined in a rock tomb, you rise victorious from the dead, defeating both sin and death, and enabling us to receive eternal life through faith in your Son.
Thank you, Lord, for Easter.
The greater majority of Christians accept this without question. If all the churches taught this for nearly two millennia, then who am I to question it? Perhaps Matthew 12:40 is a copying error? If so, then how can I trust the rest of the Bible for being reliable? Indeed, an error of this kind, a quotation from Jesus, would mean that Jonah himself (or his biographer) erred when he wrote three days and three nights hid undersea. If Jonah had gotten it wrong, so did Jesus. Such doesn't lend much credit for inspiration!
There is always the idea that the High Day of John 19:31 was a reference to a special Sabbath, itself distinct from the normal Saturday Sabbath as being the first day of Unleavened Bread, a Jewish holiday lasting a full week gotten from Exodus 12:1-30. If this special Sabbath fell on a Friday, this would have meant two Sabbaths, Friday and Saturday, one after the other. If that was the case, that would mean that Jesus was Crucified on a Thursday, which was the Day of Preparation, when leaven was removed from every Jewish household across Israel and beyond.
 |
| Unleavened Bread. |
Jesus died at the same moment when all the Passover lambs were slain, to be roasted and then eaten later that night, which was by then the first day of Unleavened Bread, a special Sabbath or High Day which was a Friday. Maybe that was why the apostle Paul called his Lord Jesus Christ "the Passover Lamb" of 1 Corinthians 5:7.
This seems to be a worthwhile study, and from it, I personally accept that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday, to die shortly before nightfall on that day. But this is something I need to keep for myself - or just share on this blog. I know that such an idea will be resisted by just about every Christian believer who either know me personally or who reads this blog. In the face of universal church authority, I would be perceived as just an oddity, a quack, one of those nerdy types who is off his rocker and therefore fully deserve by them to be ignored and not taken any notice of.
Maybe that is not as bad as it first looks. To God only am I accountable. If advocating a Thursday crucifixion will earn a stern rebuke from Heaven...
So be it. At least I can explain why I believe what I believe. But my biggest concern is that thereafter, no one will take my blogs seriously enough to bother reading them. I would be categorised as quackery, probably on the same level as believing that a small phial of water can be classed as holistic medicine, even if there is only one molecule of elixir in the entire phial, to give healing benefits.
Holistic medicine or not, for me, the historicity of the Crucifixion, and the timing of his death, his duration of burial and his Resurrection on that early Sunday morning even before daybreak is very central to my faith. Even Paul knew this by writing that if Christ had not risen, then my faith is in vain, without a purpose - 1 Corinthians 15:14. With our health under threat with a coronavirus infection with my beloved on special high risk, then believing in the historicity of Christ's final moments is absolutely central, allowing everything else to fall into proper perspective. And that includes the possibility that he was crucified on a Thursday, or the fifth day of the week.
It comes in as very supportive and edifying when in such a time when due to the lockdown, all dentists in our area have shut down and shortly after, Alex develops a severe toothache with pain spreading upwards towards her cranium. Earlier in the week, her pain was so severe that she begged me to phone 111. They believed that her condition was severe enough to warrant an ambulance. After the paramedics had found out that she overdosed (slightly) on both Paracetamol and Oramorph, they insisted on a trip to A&E where she will be further assessed. Due to the pandemic, I had to remain at home, for the first time ever. About six hours later she arrived home by taxi after being discharged without treatment, endorsing our opinion that the trip was a waste of time and effort.
Fortunately, her dentist has gotten through to us from his private mobile and prescribed antibiotics. As she gets closer to halfway through her course, the pain still comes and goes, but (with the help of painkillers) it's now less intense. The whole point of this episode is the timing of this entire scenario. It's as if she's a victim of some spiritual trickery or mockery, to make our lives as miserable and stressfully hard as can be. But her own faith in God is to be commended, much having been taught by me over the last twenty years of marriage and her more recent commitment to read the Bible.
Daily reports on nearly a thousand deaths with Coronavirus in intensive care each day, here in the UK, I find so distressing to the spirit. With the world looking so dark and grim, the Easter holidays should be a good time, a reminder that the light of Christ is shining, and God commands that all people everywhere should come to repentance and receive the eternal life which is on offer to all those who believe. If only Easter would shout all the louder! If only people would see the light of Christ with his arms open to receive them, and run to him, even from the fears and anxieties this pandemic is bringing. Yet what do I find?
A discussion about Brexit on Facebook! And that with the typical Brexiteer's insensitive response: To hell with Brussels, we are leaving at the end of the year, end of! This was amid a discussion whether, due to talks delayed by the pandemic, the intermittent period should be extended into next year, or should it still end on schedule without an agreement between London and Brussels? The Brexiteer has expressed his opinion that he couldn't care less about the talks. To him, nationalism is all or nothing. To be honest, I was shocked to read this during these sorrowful times.
Cry! Cry! Cry unto my soul, cry! Somehow, in this present distress, I don't think this is the right time to discuss such an issue. Why not? Well, let's see. Up to a thousand patients confined in intensive care have lost their lives with coronavirus each day here in the UK alone. That alone is very distressing. I think of the many families who have lost their loved one. I try to put myself into their place. I imagine my beloved wife lying in intensive care, unconscious, with a ventilator pipe connecting a machine to the inside of her trachea. She lies there alone, longing for my company had she remained conscious, but the hospital still forbids me to be by her side. Then her liver gives in. Immediately the nurse notices that her cardiac monitor is displaying a straight line and emitting a constant hum. The doctor arrives to give confirmation. Presently, I receive a phone call from the hospital, a very apologetic message to inform me that I'm now a widower.
This could be real. The NHS has informed her that she is on the high-risk category due to having cancer. At present, she remains at home under a shielding programme. But one mistake from me, who is allowed to go out for essentials, could still pass the virus to her.
But thanks to Easter, she would be one of the fortunate ones. At her passing, she would be in the arms of her Lord in Heaven. As she enters glory, all her pains would be over. Over for eternity, along with all the other problems the stresses of life had thrown at her. She would enjoy her final victory. It would soften the terrible blow I would have suffered at the news and the easing of the dread by Christ's presence from a very lonely existence, especially if our church services are still grounded by the pandemic.
Thank you, Lord God, for sending your dear Son as a once-and-for-all-time sacrifice to atone for our sins. And after three days and three nights confined in a rock tomb, you rise victorious from the dead, defeating both sin and death, and enabling us to receive eternal life through faith in your Son.
Thank you, Lord, for Easter.
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